Plastic Saaps

[kman58]

Kamal and Aalok those saaps loop fantastic!!! Congratulations guys 8) ;D

@hardeep or anybody else who's dabbled in plastic saap making: I've got a 3D printer on campus and have considered sending hardeeps blueprints to the printing lab to have some parts printed. The idea was to print the parts, purchase the screws, and assemble. I don't know much at all about 3D printing or what the material is but how do you guys feel about 3D printing not only saaps/saap parts but any kind of props in general (cost, effectiveness, etc)?

 

[hardeep_singh]

Kamal and Aalik those saaps loop fantastic!!! Congratulations guys

@hardeep or anybody else who's dabbled in plastic saap making: I've got a 3D printer on campus and have considered sending hardeeps blueprints to the printing lab to have some parts printed. The idea was to print the parts, purchase the screws, and assemble. I don't know much at all about 3D printing or what the material is but how do you guys feel about 3D printing not only saaps/saap parts but any kind of props in general (cost, effectiveness, etc)?

SLA parts will not work, theyre not strong or durable enough. only material and process i'd feel comfortable with is laser sintered nylon, but that is a much more expensive material and process, so i doubt it's available to you. any sort of 3d printing is just way too expensive

 

[kamalb]

Kamal and Aalik those saaps loop fantastic!!! Congratulations guys

@hardeep or anybody else who's dabbled in plastic saap making: I've got a 3D printer on campus and have considered sending hardeeps blueprints to the printing lab to have some parts printed. The idea was to print the parts, purchase the screws, and assemble. I don't know much at all about 3D printing or what the material is but how do you guys feel about 3D printing not only saaps/saap parts but any kind of props in general (cost, effectiveness, etc)?

SLA parts will not work, theyre not strong or durable enough. only material and process i'd feel comfortable with is laser sintered nylon, but that is a much more expensive material and process, so i doubt it's available to you. any sort of 3d printing is just way too expensive

i agree, 3d printing a shikkah would be way too expensive and would not be as durable as HDPE. its definitely and interesting idea but not worth it to make a full set.

Also, ive been considering the washer idea, that will probably be the most cost effective method. that and people getting used to not having to use as much energy to play plastic shikkeh lol

 

[hardeep_singh]

while this discussion is so popular right now i also wanna give credit to inder verma and bk, they put a lot of trust in the saaps i made and provided a loooot of credibilty to plastic saaps when they used em in their bruin set. watching those saaps used live, i knew the flood gates were about to break open.

 

[mafzal]

LOL at all of these jokes

I have no objection to the concept of plastic sapps, however: (1) They do not sound as good. You want the powerful rich sound that comes from wooden sapps, especially with it typically being your opening segment. (2) Unless you're going for a gimmicky look, the white color and shine of the plastic sapps is tacky. IMO the wooden color of real sapps is much more aesthetically pleasing to most routines.

 

[hardeep_singh]

LOL at all of these jokes

I have no objection to the concept of plastic sapps, however: (1) They do not sound as good. You want the powerful rich sound that comes from wooden sapps, especially with it typically being your opening segment. (2) Unless you're going for a gimmicky look, the white color and shine of the plastic sapps is tacky. IMO the wooden color of real sapps is much more aesthetically pleasing to most routines.

actually there was only 1 joke, the one about your dislike of clacking, which was on point lol props to basim. aside from that the rest of the discussion has been pretty informative and valuable.

1) i didn't realize that saaps are graded based on how they sound. is there a standard for how saaps should sound? as i've explained previously on btf sound frequency and intensity of a material is dependent on density, molecular structure, and impact surface area. if you made saaps out of different types of wood, they would sound different, there are plenty of types of wood that wouldn't have this magical so called "powerful rich sound". good joke though "powerful rich sound" lol i'm sure plenty of audience members and judges are perturbed when they don't hear this "powerful rich sound" coming from saaps, because that's definitely what people should focus on instead of the actual choreo or music.

2) shinyness is tacky???? i guess we should burn 98% of all bhangra vardiyan out there, the only ones that would survive would be the ones too dirty to be considered shiny. so it's not a big deal that teams have been taping or painting saaps, khunday, katos various bright colors over the years, sticking LED's on everything like they're celebrating christmas on stage, using lasers as khunday, but when a saap is naturally white and shiny it's a "gimmicky" look? thandi kahani veeray.

i find it aesthetically pleasing when saaps don't break on stage, u mirin'?

 

[Sue Sylvester]

I have no objection to the concept of plastic sapps, however: (1) They do not sound as good. You want the powerful rich sound that comes from wooden sapps, especially with it typically being your opening segment. (2) Unless you're going for a gimmicky look, the white color and shine of the plastic sapps is tacky. IMO the wooden color of real sapps is much more aesthetically pleasing to most routines.

I agree with both these concerns. While plastic saaps allow for a plethora of advantages over their wooden brethren, sound and appearance are the biggest reasons why most teams haven't made the switch yet.

However, given that certain talented individuals from our generation have begun taken full ownership of the manufacturing, production and innovation in the engineering and design of saaps from scratch, I have no doubt that they can find ways to effectively improve and enhance the richness of the sound. Hardeep, it's not a matter of what audience and judges should focus on (when talking about sound of a saap vs choreo or music). Many teams will just want to make sure the various components of their performance come together in the best way possible.

And I don't think it should necessarily be on the onus of these individuals who make saaps to necessarily come up with aesthetically pleasing designs for teams to use. I agree, the white is tacky, bland and over-used. Teams can take it upon themselves to design these "blank canvas" saaps to give them more of a "wooden" look if they desire or express their creativity through other designs.

 

[kman58]

I have no objection to the concept of plastic sapps, however: (1) They do not sound as good. You want the powerful rich sound that comes from wooden sapps, especially with it typically being your opening segment. (2) Unless you're going for a gimmicky look, the white color and shine of the plastic sapps is tacky. IMO the wooden color of real sapps is much more aesthetically pleasing to most routines.

I agree with both these concerns. While plastic saaps allow for a plethora of advantages over their wooden brethren, sound and appearance are the biggest reasons why most teams haven't made the switch yet.

However, given that certain talented individuals from our generation have begun taken full ownership of the manufacturing, production and innovation in the engineering and design of saaps from scratch, I have no doubt that they can find ways to effectively improve and enhance the richness of the sound. Hardeep, it's not a matter of what audience and judges should focus on (when talking about sound of a saap vs choreo or music). Many teams will just want to make sure the various components of their performance come together in the best way possible.

And I don't think it should necessarily be on the onus of these individuals who make saaps to necessarily come up with aesthetically pleasing designs for teams to use. I agree, the white is tacky, bland and over-used. Teams can take it upon themselves to design these "blank canvas" saaps to give them more of a "wooden" look if they desire or express their creativity through other designs.

I'd just like to point out that this may be the case for teams that have large bank accounts or are very well funded for whatever reason. I would like to argue that the reason most teams haven't made the switch is for financial reasons. There are by far more collegiate teams than independent, and most of our schools give us very poor funding. Thus it is usually hard to come up with $6-700 upfront to buy a set of plastic saaps from someone like Hardeep or Aalok because as much as we'd want to get saaps that don't break and have unlimited customizability, we just can't. Kind of like renting a house vs buying. Wooden saaps you know they're going to break so we keep dishing out $200 every year for new wood but it's hard to get that downpayment sometimes. For me plastic saaps aren't about their lightness or color or anything like that, it's simply because I hate when wooden saaps break on a regular basis for whatever reason (playing too hard, temperature fluctuations, etc). Also not many people have the drive, urge, or even means to make the saaps themselves. Again just my opinions from experience.

Also to Mariam's point, you do have one but would it really be applicable in a music team setting? When I watch music teams all I focus on is choreo, formations, energy/cleanliness, and jamming to their mix. I've never really focused on how the saaps click sounds on stage or the katos click or whatever, and I also don't know how many people do. With live teams yes that may be different, but (again just my opinion from observation and experience) even still the sounds are just so similar anyways.

 

[kamalb]

LOL at all of these jokes

I have no objection to the concept of plastic sapps, however: (1) They do not sound as good. You want the powerful rich sound that comes from wooden sapps, especially with it typically being your opening segment. (2) Unless you're going for a gimmicky look, the white color and shine of the plastic sapps is tacky. IMO the wooden color of real sapps is much more aesthetically pleasing to most routines.

last time i checked no one is stopping teams from simply painting their plastic shikkeh brown lol the reason they are white is because white is the standard colour for HDPE sheets, making them much easier to come by at a reasonable price. everyones entitled to their own opinions, but end of the day, plastic shikkeh are a one time purchase and will still be ready to be played long after everyone here retires lol

 

[mafzal]

1. I do listen for the sound. The wooden sapps are louder and have a lower tone - the sound is more impactful. If you experiment with materials and can achieve a better sound from non-wooden sapps, i'd love to hear it. I think non-wooden sapps are a cool concept. I applaud the creativity and R&D going into them. It's just not to the point where i would encourage teams to use them yet

2. I encourage experimenting with the "blank canvas" of plastic white sapps, you're right there's no stopping anyone from getting creative and making improvements there

 

[hardeep_singh]

good points sue, thank you for presenting your concerns and criticism so well.
here's a quick and easy solution to the "problem" of the white color
woodgrain tape
http://www.duckbrand.com/products/duck-tape/printed-duck-tape/1829

with respect to sound, part of the reason why HDPE saaps are not as loud is because of the design. the design allows for more extension than typical wooden saaps so people just don't clap em hard enough; whereas the wooden saaps require more force to play due to friction and since they don't extend as much they tend to be clapped harder when they're closed.
[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKY3scPIMd8#ws]https://youtube.com/devicesupport[/url]

 

[AalokMann]

Just Finished a set of 12 Saaps for APD/KJ. They will be giving this set away at Bruin Bhangra, as a memorial prize for their brother who passed away last year. RIP Man Gabroos miss you!

 

[Danny]

Just Finished a set of 12 Saaps for APD/KJ. They will be giving this set away at Bruin Bhangra, as a memorial prize for their brother who passed away last year. RIP Man Gabroos miss you!

It was a pleasure working with Aalok. He was very professional and updated me frequently throughout the process from initial payment all the way up to shipping. Can't fully review the saaps because they haven't arrived yet, but I'm confident they are of great quality.

With Hardeep out of the game now and moving on, I would definitely recommend these guys to teams in need of new props.

 

[hardeep_singh]

With Hardeep out of the game now and moving on, I would definitely recommend these guys to teams in need of new props.

lol not completely out of the game yet bro, still innovating, just been swamped with personal and career stuff this yr. havent had much time to work on saaps but i'll definitely post when i have stuff available for purchase.

 

[Danny]

With Hardeep out of the game now and moving on, I would definitely recommend these guys to teams in need of new props.

lol not completely out of the game yet bro, still innovating, just been swamped with personal and career stuff this yr. havent had much time to work on saaps but i'll definitely post when i have stuff available for purchase.

Stand corrected! Recommend my boy Hardeep too who's the OG of this prop game

 

[AalokMann]

Finished a set of 16 for Columbia Bhangra.

 

[kamalb]

hey guys, just thought id post an update.


ive started working with a higher quality HDPE plastic,and this stuff will not flex when being played. they also do not need to be broken in like the previous sets, these come ready to play!


heres a few pictures of them i just made for a team.

 

[Basim]

Sexy pictures AalokMann & kamalb! Thanks for the updates friends. This is impressive and I'm glad others are also taking on building these as I feel hardeep had gotten swamped with requests at some point.

Of course all credit to the "plastic saap OG" for the initial designs and disclosure of the building process/information.

Hope the respective teams really enjoy the final product! Looking forward to seeing these used more on stage. Not having to deal with/worry about saaps breaking = BIG WIN for teams.


Would love to see some builders or teams that try to give these a more authentic look (i.e. wood stain).

~ Basim

 

[disharma1317]

My man

Aalok is an awesome guy, and working with him in the past as both a teammate and a contact person for personal orders has been a great experience. He's professional to work with and is great at communicating through the process. Just figured I'd bump the post and help a brotha out!

 

[AalokMann]

:-* Thanks Deeeesha! Tusi Great Ho